90 YEARS OLD TODAY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27038, 13 May 1953, Page 2

90 YEARS OLD TODAY

MR E. A. BARTON, OF MONCK’S BAY

LONGEVITY ATTRIBUTED TO MODERATION Mr Ernest Albert Barton, of “Hursley,” Monck’s Bay, is 90 today. Alert and active, he attributes his longevity to moderate habits, plenty of exercise, and water-drinking. From his mother’s family, who were all long-livers, he inherits a healthy constitution. “My mother was 84 when she died. My father, a country squire of Hampshire, died younger: he was not a teetotaller,” Mr Barton said in an interview yesterday. Mr Barton has not smoked since boyhood, when, like other lads, he tried cigarettes made from pine needles. r ‘l smoked because we were not allowed to and didn’t like it anyway,” he said. He drinks water because he believes it is better for him than tea, coffee or liquor. On special occasions, such as his ninetieth birthday, he will take a glass of sherry, and as a young man enjoyed his beer, the national beverage of Hampshire. Now, only 10 years short of a cen'tury, Mr Barton plays bowls, keeps his garden blooming with flowers, looks after the roses at the Sumner Bowling Club, and drives his own car. For mental exercise, he reads good books and plays aft. occasional game of chess. 1866 Meteors Recalled An incident which stands out in Mr Barton’s remarkable memory is the sight of the Leonid meteors, which he watched from the top floor of his father’s house in 1866. “I was only

three-and-a°half years old at the time, and it seemed to me that the sky was raining stars,” he said. He remembers vividly stories of the Franco-Prussian War told to him by his godmother, who was in Paris during the siege.

“People were so hungry when Paris was besieged that my godmother said they would pay extra for a pumpkin if there was a rat inside it,” he said. He remembered, too, seeing at Waverly a waggon full of legs of mutton, stripped of,their fat for tallow, being sold for Is each. This was in the 1880’s.

Mr Barton was born at Pitt House, Huisley, an 800-acre farm which his father leased from Sir William Heathcote, after whom the district near Christchurch is named. Mr Barton was christened by the Rev. John Keble, vicar of the parish of Hursley, who wrote several well-known English hymns and the book, “The Christian Year,” which, every boy had to read in those days.

After completing his education at Cranlelgh School, Mr Barton came to New Zealand in the sailing ship St. Leonard’s in 1880 to join his elder brother, Mr W. E. Barton, of Kaikoura, who became a famous cricketer. Mr Ernest Barton entered the service of the Bank of Australasia, and in 1887, when he married Miss Margaret Harper, of Wanganui, he was manager of the Feilding branch. Mr Barton lived in Feilding for 40 years. He was a member of the Feilding Borough Council, a founder and life member of the Feilding Club, and a founder of the Feilding Lawn Tennis Club, where he won several championships. His other sports have been swimming, cricket, shooting, golf, and bowls. He held office also in horticultural and beautifying societies at Feilding. Retirement in 1907 He retired from the Bank of Australasia in 1907, and still uses the silver salver and roll-top desk that colleagues presented to him at a lavish farewell banquet in his honour. Mr Barton has revisited Britain twice and has travelled extensively In Europe. He was in England for the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902. “I would much rather read about the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II than be in London on June 2 among the jostling crowds at my age,” he remarked. When Mr and Mrs Barton returned to New Zealand after their visit to England in 1926, they went to Wanganui to live. They remained there till . 1941, when they took up residence at „ Monck’s Bay. There they celebrated their diamond wedding in 1947. Four years later, -Mrs Barton died. Mrs Barton was a granddaughter of the Rev. Richard Taylor, a missionary who helped to draft the Treaty of Waitangi and wrote it out. Like her husband, Mrs Barton was a keen cyclist, and in 1904 they both rode their bicycles from Feilding to Masterton, a distance of more than 60 miles. “And in those days the roads were covered in stones the size of boulders in parts," Mr Barton put

in. Today, Mr Barton will celebrate his birthday at home with relatives and friends. Among his visitors will be fellow-members of the Sumner and Redcliffs Bowling Clubs.